Out of the London Sun today was the news that Madonna’s adoption of 18 month old Malawian child, David Banda, will be challenged by a Malawian human right’s group. The group has stated an intent to prove in the country’s high court that the adoption is illegal, because apparently there are no defined laws that currently allow for international adoptions there. To my own understanding there are no defined laws, but due to Madonna’s interest in adopting, the high courts were reviewing... more

I admit I am bossy. I like to get things done and in the way I want to get them done. If you frame it in a nice and friendly context, I am a bit of a leader.

When it comes to the relationships in open adoption there are definitely those who lead their situation by making the arrangements and seeing everyone stays involved. I admit that this has often been my self appointed role in our three open adoptions. I pick dates, make phone calls, send letters and pull people together for functions, often when they seem uninterested. Are they... more

This weekend was my daughter’s 10th birthday party and we had the traditional family, friends and birthfamily present. In the fuss before hand getting everything ready I did not notice something adoption related that I had left out in the kitchen until later in the midst of my daughter’s party when her birth grandma mentioned it to me. She was polite, I was embarrassed, and for lack of a better place to put this thing it still sits on the inside of my kitchen door. So what is IT you ask? Well the little piece of my past adoption story hanging on my (metal)... more

That day they walked into the adoption agency, nobody really told them. They never sat them down and explained how difficult the journey would be. It wouldn’t end the day they walked out the door, once the signing of the papers, crossing the T’s and dotting I’s had occurred. What they had begun that day would always haunt them in some way, always shadowing the other joyful moments in life, it would be there, often unspoken but loudly, painfully there.

People told them some of the costs, but this was only in dollars and not... more

Continued from Part Two

The transracial couple I knew of did everything to prepare for the possibility of adopting and very quickly, so what went wrong? Well suddenly after the birth of the baby they were told that the mother had changed her mind about placement and would be parenting. They were disappointed, but that happens and they understood. It was only later when speaking to the mutual friend (the one who was going to be the foster... more

Continued form Part One

The referral director was cold in tone when she explained that the birth mother had selected another family. How could that be? It was odd that the referral director called us at precisely the time that the potential birthmom had agreed to call me, or was it? Honestly we had many irons in the fire to locate a situation so we put this aside and forged forward and with good results. We located our second daughter’s... more

You can hear a lot lately in the world of adoption about women, many not even expectant mothers at all, posing as potential birthparents in order to scam hopeful adoptive couples. You might even have heard about adoptive couples who scam young women posing as prepared and screened when they are in fact not approved for adoption and want to conduct matters under the radar of proper adoption laws. How much however have you heard about adoption agencies and other seeming “professionals” becoming the actual scam artists? While there do not appear to be many... more

Today staffer Brandy over at the forums posed a very interesting question.

What does “adoption friendly state” mean to you?

I think it really takes no amount of guess work to figure out that the “adoption friendly” definition of laws in any state are really described as such with adoptive parents in mind. This is not to say that there are not states with laws that are in fact... more